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In April 2015 AKF started an organic cotton project in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh with the support of the C&A Foundation. Manga fills here his distributer with Panch Patti, a natural pest repellent made from five leaves found locally. Combined with cow dung, cow urine and water the extract is left to ferment for 8-10 days and can then be sprayed on cotton plants as well as vegetables, herbs and pulses intercropped.

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

In April 2015 AKF started an organic cotton project in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh with the support of the C&A Foundation. The project aims to improve the livelihoods and incomes of 7,000 tribal farmers living there through the promotion of organic cotton cultivation.

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

Vermi-composting is one of the agricultural enhancement techniques promoted by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP). Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India.

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

The Self Help Group-run solar powered irrigation scheme in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India was set up in April 2016 with the support of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP). The scheme is run by 12 SHG members.

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

Community-based savings groups in Bihar, India.

AKDN / Jean-Luc Ray

Rural development

In India, The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and its sister agency, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I)) focus on supporting marginalised communities’ economic development and environmental protection through community-based approaches to natural resource management (NRM) and livelihood enhancement at the village level. Particular focus is also put on facilitating wider learning and outreach at state and national levels. The programme currently works in over 2,500 villages, directly benefiting almost 1.4 million people, in the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Community engagement and mobilisation are central to the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)’s approach to ensuring local ownership and the sustainability of programme interventions. In India, AKF and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I)) focus on developing and strengthening sustainable community institutions, and federating these groups, so that they are better able to connect with local government programmes to access entitlements and public services.

To date, 5,000 village-level institutions, representing over 100,000 people have been supported in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. These institutions play a major role in mobilising communities for planning, implementation and monitoring of initiatives in agriculture, watershed development, irrigation management, horticulture, and dairy development. The local institutions operate at sub-village, village and block levels, with AKF/AKRSP (I) providing technical and institutional capacity building support as well as strengthening relationships with government line departments, panchayats (the Indian term for local self-government) and in some cases, with financial services providers and agricultural input suppliers/traders.

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The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme rehabilitates check dams that capture rainwater during the monsoons. The water is then channelled to local tribal farmers throughout the year through small aquifers, to help increase their crop yield and improve their livelihoods. Netrang, Gujarat, India.

Most of the communities in the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I)) programme areas are heavily reliant on agriculture as a result AKF’s efforts to improve households’ economic conditions are focused on increasing productivity and diversity, and on strengthening connections to agricultural traders and processors.

These interventions enable poor smallholders to sell more, higher quality produce at increased prices therefore helping ensure food security, increase net incomes, help with climate change mitigation and adaptation and reduce risks for farmers. Agriculture/Natural Resource Management (NRM) interventions address a wide range of staple crops (rice, wheat, pulses), cash crops such as cotton, high value horticulture, as well as livestock. In each of these sub-sectors, AKF/AKRSP (I) work to improve input supply through the introduction of new seed varieties/breeds and easy to make organic, low-cost fertilisers and pesticides as well as improving soil and water management. In Gujarat, AKRSP has been working in drought-prone areas some of which are also prone to coastal salination for over 30 years and today some of AKRSP (I)’s programme areas are extremely water-stressed making water conservation and community-based irrigation approaches key to sustaining agricultural production. AKF/AKRSP (I) also work to set-up farmer producer groups and help them negotiate growing and purchasing agreements with agro-input suppliers and processors. AKRSP (I) has had significant success with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which increases productivity by improving the management of soil, water, plants and nutrients. Yields have increased by up to 50% with SRI, allowing farmers to allocate more land to valuable cash crops such as cotton. Farmers have replicated SRI principles for other crops such as maize and wheat with significant improvements in productivity. In 2015, as part of its work to improve farmers’ livelihoods, AKF and AKRSP began a better cotton initiative with farmers in Gujarat as well as an organic cotton project in Madhya Pradesh.

In Gujarat, AKF and AKRSP are helping small farmers adopt water use efficiency measure by adopting drip irrigation and as well is working to help farmers access government subsidies for these technologies. In Madhya Pradesh, farmers are being supported as they move towards sustainable organic cotton farming and better markets. Since 2002, some 20,000 households have benefitted from irrigation schemes and 40,000 from soil and water conservation measures in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. 48,301 hectares of land has benefited from watershed development and an additional 15,000 hectares irrigated through development of wells, farm ponds, rehabilitation of canals and associated works. On average, incomes have doubled as a result: farmers now earn $1,000 annually compared to $500 in 2001. Forestry is another means of improving the livelihoods of farming communities. AKRSP has been helping reignite the traditions of community protection of common lands, which have come under pressure due to lack of entitlements and population growth. Through farm forestry efforts and reforestation efforts in southern Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, AKRSP has helped communities reduce the drudgery for women and children, improve their local ecology and contribute to reforestation efforts. Livestock is an essential asset for the poorest households with limited access to land or other productive assets. and interventions focus on training to improve animal husbandry, improving access to veterinary services, and establishing linkages to local dairies. Goat-rearing in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is helping families earn up to $500 extra per year. A key component has been the promotion of women animal health workers called “pashu sakhis”, who provide affordable animal care in remote villages. Pashu Sakhis are now being trained in Bihar, as part of a wider women’s empowerment programme which is building the capacity of women self-help group (SHG) members to adopt modern veterinary practices with small ruminants as well as become para-vets themselves. AKF/AKRSP (I) activities in agriculture/ NRM reach more than 1m people (28% female) and are increasingly supported by state funding and grants from local corporate trusts and foundations.

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The Computer-based Technology and Learning Centre (CTLC) was established in 2007 by AKRSP in partnership with Microsoft. There are 13 CTLCs in Baruch and Surendranagar districts.

India has high levels of rural-urban migration and a large population of young people who are not keen to work in agriculture. In response, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I)) are working to develop the capacities of rural youth and match them with job opportunities.

Since 2007, AKRSP,I has established 13 training centres to act as hubs providing youth with information about government schemes, agriculture markets, and job opportunities. To date, 27,500 youth have been trained. The centres are increasingly linked with employers (including retail chains, call centres and construction companies) and have placed over 3,700 youth in new jobs to date. AKRSP (I) has also facilitated training on skills for employability for 1,500 youth and is developing a social enterprise in Gujarat that will focus on skills development and job placement for youth. In urban areas of Patna (Bihar) and Hyderabad (Telangana) as well as in rural Uttar Pradesh, AKF has been helping adolescent girls who have dropped out of school access vocational skills training such as sewing and embroidery. Migrant support In response to widespread rural-urban migration AKF is also supporting a migrant support initiative which is being piloted in the districts of Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh. The initiative is focused on preparing migrant youth with skills, knowledge and social support for safer and more profitable migration. Through a Migrant Support Centre handholding and information about social security schemes as well as linkages to relevant schemes are being provided. Alternate Energy AKF and AKRSP (I) have been promoting alternate energy amongst the communities it works with to reduce energy deficiencies in rural areas. These programmes have focused on bringing energy to poor households while at the same reducing the drudgery of women and children (from collection of wood and dung), provide pollution free environments; provide domestic light and reduce the reliance on expensive, carbon polluting fuels for irrigation and drinking water distribution. This programme has helped youth and women from marginalised communities become solar energy entrepreneurs who now earn a livelihood from selling, assembling and reparing low-cost solar energy products in their communities.

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Community Based Savings Groups (CBSGs) in India are self-managed groups that provide their members access to basic financial services.

In order to increase financial inclusion for India’s most marginalised communities, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP (I)) has established more than 5,000 self-help groups (SHGs) in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, 86% of whose members are women.

These groups have accumulated savings of over $1m since 2002 and with the savings members have been able to pay for healthcare, existing and new livelihoods activities and repay existing debts to moneylenders. AKRSP (I) and the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) are increasingly working to link SHGs with formal financial services, specifically the Development Credit Bank (DCB) which has added three branch offices in the tribal areas of south Gujarat, with support from AKRSP (I) since 2009. Over 20 SHG federations provide capacity building and oversight support to 1,096 of the SHGs. In Bihar, AKF/AKRSP (I) and local implementing partners have mobilised 35,300 individuals (92% women) into 1,807 CBSGs. Unlike SHGs, CBSG members save in varying amounts and liquidate their funds annually. CBSG savings rates appear to be several times higher as a result. Drawing on the CBSG model developed by AKF in East Africa, Central Asia and South Asia as well as the existing SHG model, in India AKF has also pioneered a new model combining CBSG and SHG components and which enables its members to have a high rate of savings and access credit from financial institutions. This SHG Plus model is being implemented in rural Bihar with a view to expanding it to other states where AKF and AKRSP (I) are present and in urban areas as well.